Crime-terror Nexus Research Articles

The criminal activities and operational roles of Australian neo-jihadists: a network perspective

ABSTRACT Despite the significant global repercussions of terrorism, including loss of lives and economic resources, research on its relationship with crime has been limited to group-level analyses. This study examines the individual criminal activities of Australian Neo-Jihadists, via social network analysis from an individual perspective. Judicial documents and newspaper articles are analysed to determine the criminal activities and operational roles of network actors. Findings suggest a prominence of criminal activities, and a significant relationship between market criminal activities and facilitation of terrorist operations. The study concludes with suggestions for future research, emphasising the potential for disrupting terrorist networks by focusing on the new crime-terror nexus.

MALI: CONFLICT, SOCIAL ORDER AND THE CRIME-TERROR NEXUS

This article examines the relationship between conflict, social order, and the crime-ter ror nexus, with a focus on non-state armed groups in Mali, particularly Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM). Using anarchist political theory, the study challenges the view of these groups as purely chaotic, instead suggesting their primary aim is to establish social order. The crime-terror nexus is explored to understand its role in new governance structures created by these groups. The study underscores the importance of re-evaluating the frameworks used to interpret armed groups, emphasizing their role in creating social order and stability in conflict zones. The research offers insights into the complex dynamics of armed groups in Mali and encourages further investigation into their influence on regional stability. Keywords: Mali, armed groups, social order, terrorism, governance, conflict, crime-terror nexus.

Crimes on the edge? Criminal activities and the crime-terror nexus in the Kenyan peripheries of the Indian Ocean

ABSTRACT Maritime security threats in the East African coastal peripheries are greatly interwoven with local crimes, economies, and socio-political lifestyles. How crimes are viewed, defined, and categorised as legal and illegal by the locals elucidates how the crime-terrorism nexus is contextualised in specific localities along the coastal seafronts. Often, financial-motivated crimes have the potential to go hand in hand with ideologically driven terrorist activities, where both syndicates operate discreetly in these communities. Based on an ethnographic study in Kenya, this article interrogates the local meanings and understandings of criminal activities in peripheral societies to determine how local crimes intersect with terrorism-related activities. The crisscrossing modus operandi of criminal syndicates and terrorist networks provides each other with safe havens, secrecy in operations, and a vulnerable base of supporters in environments where state-citizen relationships are deteriorating.

The street-jihadi spectrum: Marginality, radicalization, and resistance to extremism

For over a decade, jihadi terrorism in Europe, and the recruitment of Europeans to fight for ISIS in Syria, have increasingly involved marginalized youths from a social context of street culture, illegal drug use and crime. Existing theoretical models of the crime-terrorism nexus and radicalization arguably do not sufficiently explain the fluid and dynamic ways by which the street cultural come to be politico-religiously violent. This paper provides a novel retheorization, the street-jihadi spectrum, which is better placed to explain a wide range of behaviours, from the merely stylistic to the spectacularly violent. On the street culture end it includes subcultural play with provocative jihadi symbols and on the jihadi end the terrorism of ‘gangster-jihadists’. We emphasize that the spectrum, consisting of a multitude of confluences of street and jihadi cultures, also includes resistance to jihadism.

The persistence of organized crime in post-caliphate Iraq: a case of crime-terror convergence?

In the advancing understanding of the crime-terror nexus, organized crime and terrorist entities are increasingly seen as capable of pursuing multiple agendas simultaneously, with the potential to ultimately reach convergence. Applying Makarenko’s theoretical work on crime-terror convergence, this article sets out to explain the persistence of organized crime in Iraq after the fall of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Caliphate, based on a literature study and three expert interviews. The vacuum caused by the Caliphate’s fall led to fierce competition between remnants of ISIS and Iran-backed Shia factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and a rearrangement of control over ISIS’ criminal enterprise. The Iraq-Syria border is used as a hub for the smuggling of weapons, drugs, oil, and people by both the ISIS remnants and the Shia PMF factions, while the border areas and roads leading to Baghdad are focal points for imposing illicit taxation. We argue that in post-Caliphate Iraq, ISIS remnants can be seen as hybrid criminal-political entities, while the Shia PMF factions cannot be defined as such in a definite manner. In their competition for power, both actors exploit local idiosyncrasies to garner support among the local population. By strengthening both their criminal and ideological-political components, these actors continue to destabilize the already fragile Iraqi state. Moreover, because Iran-backed Shia PMF factions obtained legitimacy and state backing as liberators from ISIS and became embedded in the Iraqi state apparatus, the state itself became a crucial contributor to the crime-terror nexus in post-Caliphate Iraq.

Understanding Boko Haram’s Hybrid Operational Methods in Northwestern Nigeria

This paper investigates the hybrid operational character of Boko Haram within the contexts of methods, strategies, and organizational affiliations in the northwestern region. This is due to the continued expansion of Boko Haram into the region since the military reinvigoration in the northeast. The new military operations in the region have caused serious disorientation in the ranks of Boko haram, which necessitated a move to other regions to avoid defeat by the Nigerian military. This study uses qualitative methods to demonstrate the vast range of techniques connected with bandits and other groups in the area based on the operational nexus. The materials used were content analyzed thematically. This study is predicated on Makarenko’s crime-terror nexus model for the analysis. The theory highlighted levels of alliances, convergence, and operational tools armed groups adopt to achieve their goals. The paper finds that Boko haram has developed hybrid operational strategies to expand its operational areas for a continued existence. The hybrid operational character was developed based on alliances and the adoption of operational tools. The study recommends that Nigeria first understand this development as a new hybrid threat to deal with and contain Boko Haram and other groups of similar style in Nigeria.

Terror and Crime: Anatomy of an Austrian Jihadist Prison Cohort.

Between 2014 and 2018 there was an unprecedented wave of jihadist terrorist activity in Austria that was mostly related to the "Islamic state." Meanwhile, many individuals have been or are gradually being released from prison. While many were able to disengage, two prevented and sentenced foreign fighters planned attacks in Vienna, one of them succeeded. In order to better understand this type of perpetrator, files of a cohort of 56 convicted jihadist terrorist offenders were analyzed. Half of this cohort were foreign fighters or attempted to become foreign fighters, while others contributed for instance by spreading propaganda, recruiting and assuming leadership. Additionally, a focus group with probation officers and an interview were conducted. The results shed light on various sociodemographic variables showing that there was not one specific profile. Rather, the cohort appeared to be very diverse, being comprised of all genders, age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. Furthermore, a considerable crime-terror nexus was found. Thirty percent of the cohort had had a criminal past before their engagement in violent extremism. A fifth of the cohort had a prison experience before the arrest for the terrorist offense. The criminal offenses of the cohort were typical for the general population of probation clients which backs the notion that many terrorist offenders belonged to the same population and had switched from "traditional" crime to terrorism.

Dogs and Cats Living Together? Explaining the Crime-Terror Nexus

ABSTRACT Why do some terrorist groups cooperate with criminal organizations? This behavior is puzzling because there are reputational reasons for each of these kinds of groups to avoid the other, yet such cooperation seems to be increasingly common. The growing literature on the “crime-terror-nexus” examines terrorist-criminal cooperation, but questions remain. We discuss relevant research, and present hypotheses. Analysis of nearly 400 terrorist organizations using a newly-coded measure of inter-organizational cooperation suggests that certain types of terrorist groups are more likely to work with organized crime: those that are involved in the drug trade, cooperate with other terrorist groups, are older, or are more lethal. These relationships are robust. We also find some evidence that the crime-terror nexus is more likely for groups that have state sponsors, have larger memberships, operate in more capable countries, or operate in less-democratic countries. There is also some evidence that ethnically-motivated terrorist groups are less likely to cooperate with organized crime. Interestingly, there is little or no support for the idea that the nexus is related to territorial control or religious ideology. These findings go against some previous research and suggest steps for future analysis.

Confluences of Street Culture and Jihadism: The Spatial, Bodily, and Narrative Dimensions of Radicalization

ABSTRACT Research on the new crime-terror nexus has focused on examining the confluences of criminal and jihadist milieus. This article contributes to this research, using insights from criminological theory and analyzing data from interviews with Muslim men who have been exposed to jihadism and have a background in street life and crime. We propose that the connection between street crime and jihadism can be seen in three decisive points of confluence: places, bodies, and narratives. We show how specific places (e.g. prisons) enable the encounter between particular bodies (e.g. violently competent bodies) and the engagement or disengagement with certain extremist narratives (e.g. stories of redemption through violence). The crime-terror literature emphasizes that these points of confluence are sources of radicalization. We expand upon this by arguing that they may also serve as venues for resisting or rejecting politico-religious extremism. The study demonstrates that radicalization is only one possible outcome of the confluences between street culture and jihadism.

From Crime to Terrorism: Life-Circumstances and Criminal Careers of Terrorist Suspects

It is widely acknowledged that factors such as previous offending and unemployment increase the risk of offending, but it remains unclear to what extent this also holds true for terrorist suspects. Using register-data on individuals suspected of a terrorist offense in the Netherlands, the present study takes on a life-course criminological approach to study the background and criminal career of terrorist suspects. Moreover, we compare their background to that of general criminal suspects and members of the general population. Our findings support the idea of a “new” crime-terror nexus at the individual level and show similarities between terrorist suspects and regular suspects.

Organized Crime–Terror Nexus: Interrogating the Linkage Between Banditry and Terrorism in Northern Nigeria

This paper examines the phenomenon of crime–terror nexus from the standpoint of the linkage between banditry and Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria. Using a descriptive analysis predicated on a combination of primary and secondary studies, the paper reveals that both groups have functionally adapted each other’s structures and strategies. While Boko Haram and its splinter groups have occasionally engaged in acts of banditry, there has been mutual co-option by both groups as the exigencies of their operations demand. Nigeria’s drive at mitigating the banditry-terrorism conundrum must proceed with a pragmatic understanding of the gamut and dynamics of their situational nexuses.

Narcotics trafficking impact on human security in South and Central Asia

Narcotics trafficking is a major threat to human security in South and Central Asian Countries. It is very interesting issue as a Non-Traditional security challenge of the region. This article explores impact of Narcotics trade and organized crime on state functioning and threat to human security. South and Central Asia has emerged as a crucial arena of international security, with an enhanced strategic importance that has replaced the region’s geographic isolation and geopolitical marginalization. Narcotic threats to South & Central Asia have changed in form and structure and most visibly geographically, from being primarily a problem from Golden Crescent, with imports from Afghanistan & Pakistan to a more multifaceted threat. The origin of the world’s largest exporter of heroin is today Eurasia, more specifically, Afghanistan, while other products are domestic in origin. This article traces the change in the threat posed by narcotics production and trafficking in South & Central Asia, over time and across the major parts of these regions. The research argues that the crime-terror nexus and diseases posed the greatest threat to human security in after independent to 2011; but that since then, the challenge has grown more complex and that different parts of these regions have developed in different directions: in Afghanistan and South & Central Asia, the crime-terror nexus has been eclipsed by the rapidly growing infiltration of state institutions by organized crime.

Street Culture Meets Extremism: How Muslims Involved in Street Life and Crime Oppose Jihadism

AbstractMany studies have examined why individuals with a background in street life and crime are drawn toward extremism. This paper examines why most people with this background reject extremism. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Oslo, we found that Muslims involved in street culture were generally opposed to jihadism because they perceived jihadists as evil people who harm innocents; bad Muslims who defame Islam; and cowards who break the ‘code of the street.’ This opposition resulted in avoidance behaviours, criticism and, sometimes, violence against suspected jihadists. We argue that research on the crime-terror nexus has focussed too narrowly on the similarities between street culture and jihadism, contributing to a distorted image of Muslims involved in street culture as potential terrorists.

Terrorism, Slavery and the Evolution of the ‘Crime–Terror Nexus’

This article argues for a new application of the concept of the ‘crime–terror nexus’ by highlighting the increased prevalence of criminal engagement in modern slavery and human trafficking (MS/HT) by contemporary terrorist groups. Using the Islamic State and Boko Haram as case studies, Luciano Pollichieni and Andrew Mumford explain how such organisations are involved in MS/HT, and explore the economic and operational advantages they generate from involvement in these illegal activities. The authors call for new research in this field and flag the growing links between terrorism and slavery for counterterrorist practitioners.◼

Rethinking Intersections of Crime and Terrorism: Insights from Political Economies of Violence

AbstractThe post–Cold War environment has ushered in an era of threats from terrorism, organized crime, and their intersections giving rise to the growing literature on the so-called crime–terror nexus. This article takes stock of this literature, assesses its accomplishments and limitations, and considers ways to deepen it conceptually, theoretically, and empirically. To challenge assumptions informing the crime–terror studies and suggest avenues for future research, the article draws on ideas from the scholarship on political economies of violence. These insights are used to probe the (1) non-state actors that form the crime–terror nexus, (2) conditions under which the nexus is likely to emerge, and (3) varied effects of criminal–terrorist intersections. The article emphasizes the ties of criminal and terrorist groups to local politics, society, and economy, and relationships of competition, rather than cooperation, which often characterize these ties. The conditions under which these groups operate cannot be understood without considering the role of the state in criminal–terrorist constellations. The structure of resource economies influences both the preferences of terrorist groups for crime and the consequences of terrorist–criminal convergence, which are also mediated by state participation in crime.

ISIS and the Crime-Terror Nexus in America

This study explores the nexus between crime and Islamic State (ISIS) terrorism in America. It highlights trends in the criminal history of all federal ISIS defendants and deceased perpetrators in America, and evaluates whether crime was integral to a plot’s funding or logistics. While less pronounced than in Europe, a prevalence of prior violent crimes is evident, although plot-relevant crime was generally perpetrated by those without criminal history. It explores how gangs and prison impact defendant radicalization and mobilization, finding that gang members often left gang life upon radicalization, and while rare, prison inmates were radicalized by non-isolated terrorist inmates.

The Nexus between Organized Crime and Terrorism: Policy Responses from the European Union and the Council of Europe

This chapter addresses policy responses to the crime-terror nexus adopted by the European Union and the Council of Europe. First we examine the patchwork of European Union legal instruments and policy documents to understand how they deal with the crime-terror nexus. The nexus has historically been present in EU policy regarding money laundering and terrorist financing. In light of recent terrorist attacks, the EU’s attention on the nexus has been increasing, most notably regarding the trafficking of firearms. Nevertheless, the EU has not identified the crime-terror nexus as a policy priority and lacks a comprehensive and coherent approach. The Council of Europe has identified the nexus as a self-standing policy issue, and has recently adopted guidelines on the nexus.

Segmented terrorism in the Sahara-Sahel zone. The first stage: 2007-2015. Part 1

The article deals with complex dynamics of interaction and evolution of extremist groups in the context of clan-cast structures of Tuareg and sub-Saharan Arabs. The “war on terror” has long posed the problem of data misrepresentation in the studies of “Al-Qaeda in land of Islamic Maghreb”. Resilience and fragmentation of this and other terrorist organizations, the trajectory of their divisions and alliances can be only understood in the context of their connection with local elites, ethnic rivalries, reasons of youth recruitment, foreign and domestic resource generating practices. This context-sensitive approach is generally missing in the crime-terror nexus studies. There is little or no ideology-free and reliable information in the field of counter-terrorism - every single fact demands verification. To this end, the research applies the methods of a triangulation of primary and secondary sources and a systematic chronological and contextual investigation of all the facts, events and personalities referred. Contrary to the widespread wisdom, strategies of survival used by different actors in the Sahara-Sahel zone are incompatible with the crime-terror nexus models. The conceptual framing of terror-groups as hybrid, crime-terror enterprises, is misleading because it obscures the pivotal function of hard-core jihadists as a backbone of the whole structure. Parting with one extremist organization, they create another one or seek to establish new alliances to support their cause and terror activities. Not exclusively ideology or pragmatism constitutes the basis of these alliances, but as well local clan-cast structures. The research is relevant for the current political situation in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and adjusted regions of Algeria and Mauritania.

Islamist Militant Groups and Crime-Terror Nexus in Bangladesh

This paper employs a mixed-method approach to explore the criminal nexus of Islamist militant groups operating in Bangladesh. Data for 98 (14%) of 710 militants profiled in this study suggest various types of criminal involvement. By blending a qualitative social network analysis of top leaders from four militant groups, we find a much better picture of how terrorists pursue the strategies of appropriation, cooperation or transformation in developing criminal nexus. Findings also reveal the organizational level at which terrorists interact with criminals, and the processes through which they use marketplace interactions, prison-based radicalization, and virtual crime-linkage to expand their operations.

EXAMINING ASEAN OUR EYES DEALING WITH REGIONAL CONTEXT IN COUNTER TERRORISM, RADICALISM, AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM

ASEAN currently contends with the global context emerging dynamically which brings about multidimensional challenges and threats. Dealing with this circumstances, ASEAN member states strengthen its capacity by enhancing regional cooperation and strategic information exchange among ASEAN member states so-called ASEAN Our Eyes. This initiative adopted for the sake of forestalling any possible threat posed by terrorism, radicalism, and violent extremism through timely strategic information exchange among ASEAN member states. This study will be analyzed with Regional Security Complex and International Cooperation theories to examine ASEAN Our Eyes based on its Terms of Reference (TOR). By using a qualitative method, the result of this study portrays that ASEAN Our Eyes is able to undermine the gaps in the realm of strategic information exchange in monitoring the movement of foreign terrorist fighters, violent extremists, radicals, and crime-terror nexus. However, it remains premature as a strategic measure to encounter those threats in the upcoming years.